Okay, new plan. Find the crystals and then lock Indra up with a pair of her own cuffs. She was clearly more dangerous than I thought.
The second Jasper clicked into a seat, the room spun.
“Phoenix,” Mara called out when we stopped.
I jumped up as Elle groaned. “I’m hungry.”
I looked back at my bestie. “Go to Mara’s and make dinner. I’ll be fine.”
Mara snorted. “Dinner? It’s breakfast time.”
Shit, it was? We’d left with Liam to get the Sword of Night, and then the crystals were taken, and I hadn’t stopped moving since. Time was hazy. I was so damned tired but determined.
“Why don’t you make us some food? I’ll go with Lily,” Trissa told Elle, who had become our group’s unofficial cook.
Elle looked wearily at me, but I nodded. “Go.”
As she opened the door to Mara’s house, we stepped out into the desert of Arizona.
Jasper scowled at the barren patch of land. “I hate the desert.”
“You hate everything.” I waved him off.
After placing my feet on the dirt and getting nothing, I felt desperation claw at my chest.
Where the hell were they?!
“New Mexico,” I barked to Mara when we got back into her office. But there was nothing there either.
I clipped back into the seat and mumbled, “Utah,” as my eyes closed involuntarily before snapping awake.
Mara and Trissa shared a look. “Lily, I think it’s best if we sleep a few hours—”
“No!” Tears pricked at my vision. “He has them. We have to get them back.” The tears rolled onto my cheeks, and my chest tightened with emotion. Everyone was counting on me, I had to find them. I had to wake the Queen.
“I don’t do crying,” Jasper announced and left the room, disappearing into Mara’s house.
Trissa kneeled before me. “I’ve seen your mom in the same shape. She was no good exhausted and hungry. Eat some food; get some rest, and we will hit the ground running tomorrow.”
I sighed.
Maybe she was right. Did sleep affect my seeker power? Maybe it did or it could.
“Okay,” I mumbled, wiping my eyes.
Mara brought us back to Faerie, and I stumbled out the blue door, relieved when I saw that I was in my childhood home.
“Thanks, Mara,” I told her.
She just nodded.
I shoved a handful of dried fruit and nuts into my mouth and started to walk up the stairs.
“Wake me in a few hours,” I said to Trissa.
As I kicked off my boots, my gaze fell to the rumpled covers of my unmade bed, and a sob stilled in my throat.
Liam.
The bed was unmade from our lovemaking, and it made me sick to my stomach as grief tightened in my chest.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” I whispered, falling into the bed. I’d promised to avenge her, and I ended up falling for her killer. What an awful feeling to carry for the rest of my life. I worried that my mental anguish would keep me awake, but I easily slipped into sleep, only to toss and turn all night, having nightmares of Liam killing my mother in a hundred different ways.
***
“Lily.” Someone shook me awake, and my eyelids snapped open. I was drenched in sweat and staring into Trissa’s wide eyes. “You were whimpering in your sleep,” she said.
My gaze fell to the window and the light that came from it. “How long did I sleep?” I sat up.
Trissa rubbed her eyes like she was barely awake herself. “About six hours. I fell asleep too. Elle just woke me.”
Six hours! That was six hours that the Winter King was getting farther and farther away with Faerie’s crystals!
“We need to go.” I searched the room for my boots, but Trissa stopped me.
“Wait. There’s something you should know…” She held out a hand, placing it on my chest and pushed me back down onto the bed.
Oh, gods… That look. “What is it?”
My heart pounded in my chest.
Trissa chewed her lip. “Liam came while you were sleeping… He… returned a crystal.”
Shock ripped through me. “What?”
Trissa nodded. “He banged on one of the blue doors until Mara showed up. She took him to Faerie, and he walked in, laid the crystal at the base of the tree, and left.”
Confusion washed over me. Why would he do that? Unless he got all eleven crystals and decided to give me one as a pity parting gift. A ‘sorry for killing your mom.’
“Okay, whatever. Great.” I crossed my arms.
Trissa reached into her pocket. “He gave Mara this to give to you. Said you would know what it was for.”
With that, she pulled a plastic baggie from her jacket and handed it to me. “I’ll be outside when you’re ready to go.”
I took the baggie, completely mystified as to why Liam would give it to me until I saw the thin piece of hair lying inside.
His hair.
It hit me then.
The memory spell.
Liam was giving me the curse of seeing him kill my mother.
That sick fucker.
I knew, on some level, he would think it would explain his point of view, but unless my mom fell onto one of his icicles accidentally, he was a fucking murderer, and I would never forgive him.
I shoved the baggie under my pillow in anger and stood.
There was no time to sort through my emotions and find understanding. I needed those crystals back now.
Chapter 3
“Morning,” Mara called out from behind her desk. Her red hair was braided over one shoulder, and she looked refreshed after a good night’s sleep. My gaze fell to her cuffs.
“Shit! I forgot to ask Indra about the cuffs again.” I was really fucking up this temp Queen thing.
Mara waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I was told the spell can’t be broken while I’m still living, and a few more days won’t hurt.”
I just couldn’t believe that. “Well, when things settle, I’ll find out for sure.”
She nodded, but her eyes were blank like she didn’t believe I’d find any answers.
Jasper, Trissa, and Elle filed in behind me. I decided to leave the others until I actually found something. I had a plan. It went outside my comfort zone, but it was a solid plan.
“Where to, love?” Mara started to tinker with the dials on her desk.
“Anywhere,” I stated.
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay… How about Colorado? I think that was next in our sweep.”
I sank into the seat and clipped into the wire harness. “Sure.”
Didn’t matter for my plan. Anywhere would work.
We traveled to Colorado, and I stepped out into a beautifully treed garden.
“I would love a real estate portfolio like this,” Jasper observed.
I looked up at my small group of friends and pulled out my knife, pricking the tip of my finger.
“Lily!” Elle gasped.
Blood magic.
It was the only way to do this. I’d seen Liam do it before, and I was sick of playing by the rules. We needed those crystals back now.
“I have to,” was all I said.
The red droplet welled on my fingertip, and Jasper laid his greedy gaze upon it. “I could reverse a woman’s age back fifty years with that single drop.”